Title: How can we find out about civilisations in
the past?
STARTER: Imagine you’ve stepped out of a
time machine into an unknown place in the
past. What would you want to find out?
Create a list in your book
Concept: Interpretation
Historical skill: INTERPRETATIONS
Key term
Interpretation – an opinion on a
historical event based on evidence
Historiography – the study of
written history/historians (a
historian’s background can shape
how they form an opinion of a
historical event).
Challenge: What do we remember about what
England was like during the Saxon period,
Norman rule and Medieval period?
The BIG question: How can we
challenge historian’s
interpretations about the
African empires?
Lesson 1 – African
civilisations
Lesson 2 – Mali
Travelers Accounts
• To understand the types of sources historians can
use to draw conclusions about historical places
and what we can infer from them.
• To apply that knowledge to an opposing
interpretation to begin to challenge it.

Lesson 3 – Sunjata
Epic
Lesson 6 – Big Write
Letter to BBC History

Lesson 4 – Mansa
Musa/ Timbuktu

Lesson 5 – Hugh
Trevor Roper
Title: How can we find out about civilisations in the past? Concept: Interpretation
Friday 3 May 2024
Challenge: What other empires in history do
we already know about?

For the next 3 weeks we will be

learning about:

The Mali Empire

Key Words
Civilisation - the society, culture, and
way of life of a particular area.

Empire – a group of countries ruled

over by another country
Title: How can we find out about civilisations in the past? Concept: Interpretation

Think back to our questions at the start…

WHAT?
Challenge:
What sources
did we use to
investigate
the Anglo- Unfortunately time machines
Saxons at
Sutton Hoo? don’t exist yet so as historians,
How did they
tell us about
how can we find out the
how they answers to these questions?
lived?

HOW?
Title: How can we find out about civilisations in the past? Concept: Interpretation
Task 1: Agree with the person next to you who will be
person A and person B (if you don’t have a ruler you can use
the edge of another book!)

Bs – your job is to
As – your job is to make inferences about
make inferences about the Kingdom of Benin
the Malian Empire from from each source on the
each source on the info info document.
document.
e.g. From the artwork, I
e.g. From the object, I can can tell Benin was…
tell Mali was…

And now you have to teach each other… Don’t

just copy it – explain it!
Challenge: Can you identify similarities and differences
between the Mali and Benin empires?
 The Kingdom of Benin – 1440-1700

Literacy term: Defensive -

defending or protecting
someone or something from
attack : helping to keep a
person or thing safe

Literacy term: Fortification - a

defensive wall, building or other
reinforcement built to strengthen a
place against attack
 The Kingdom of Mali – 1230-1600

Literacy term:
Shipwrecked -an accident
in which a ship is
destroyed or sunk at sea

Literacy term: Ancestors - a person, typically further back in time than a grandparent, from whom one is descended/related to.
The BIG question: How can we challenge historian’s interpretations about the
African empires?
What is he saying about Africa?
Can you back this up with a quotation?
Underline it

How can we challenge Hugh Trevor-Roper's interpretation of

Africa before Europeans? "Perhaps, in the future, there will be
some African history to teach. But at present there is none, or How can we as
historians
very little: there is only the history of Europeans in Africa. The prove his
rest is largely darkness, like the history of pre-European, pre- interpretation
Columbian America. And darkness is not a subject for history.” – wrong?

Hugh Trevor-Roper, 1963

Challenge: Were you Why do you think he
surprised by what you believes this
have learnt about interpretation of
African Kingdoms African History?
today? Why?
Concept: Interpretation
I disagree with Hugh Trevor roper’s
interpretation of African civilisation
because he says…..
“Darkness is not a Which is not true because….
subject for History” I can prove this with evidence from
source …. Because…..

Versus

Challenge: How do the

African civilisations you
have learnt about today
compare to what you
already know about
medieval England?
Title: How can we find out about civilisations in the past? Concept: Interpretation

• 1 thing we’ve learned about medieval Africa.

• 1 task you did that helped you learn this fact

• 1 thing we’d still like to find out about

medieval Africa.
Challenge: We have learnt about medieval England
and Medieval African Civilisations so far, what other
parts of the world do you know the history of?